F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Raised to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Friday morning.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $200.89.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $192.00 on Friday. F5 has a 12 month low of $145.45 and a 12 month high of $205.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $175.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $179.97.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.39. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The firm had revenue of $695.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $686.06 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that F5 will post 10.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total value of $273,107.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at $23,359,543.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other F5 news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,315 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.46, for a total value of $558,444.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,283,790.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $273,107.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,359,543.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,186 shares of company stock worth $2,325,325 in the last 90 days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Lyrical Asset Management LP raised its stake in F5 by 38.3% during the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,986,000 after buying an additional 317,263 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter worth $45,937,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in F5 by 10.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $294,392,000 after purchasing an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,330,872,000 after buying an additional 131,341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 72.6% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 298,612 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $53,446,000 after buying an additional 125,635 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

About F5

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company’s distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.